Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (starfire62)

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:02:14 GMT

al have you ever thought of smoking it with corn cobs.i go to this place all the time when i'm up in vermont.its the best bacon i ever eatin.dakin farms.they have a video on how they smoke it with corn cobs.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:27:39 GMT

We did our first Venison Jerky today. 4 lbs of roast converted to 2 lbs of very good Teriyaki/Sweet Jerky Strips... Most of which will be headed to my son in Afghanistan in a CARE Package along with some U of Louisville drink cups and other things to make the time go by quicker.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 06:50:25 GMT

Thank You. It does taste good also !

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (318)

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:53:43 GMT

For some reason looking at all of this bacon is making me want to slap somebody!! Looks very good, had to literally stop myself from reaching at the screen.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (icecreamchick)

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 11:43:10 GMT

Looks great, Al! We have the same electric smoker, and it does a good job. Love that you're building a bigger smokehouse. What a great project!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 02:30:54 GMT

Starfire--
Yes, we rinsed and patted dry again after removing the pork from the curing bags. (forgot that step--thanks for the reminder.

We have two Scotties..those short legs deny them the ability to reach table height...and old age is trimming their ability to jump on the furniture at all.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (starfire62)

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 22:15:00 GMT

al did you rinse your bacon after you cured it before you smoked it?i did mine 2 yrs ago and it was great.i also made pepperbacon with mine it was awesome.me and my wife still laugh at this.i smoked it and let it cool on counter and dog ate about half of it.i did nt push it back far enough.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:49:47 GMT

Bill
We bought a bag (5 lbs) of Morton's "Sugar Cure" Game Curing Salt. Apparently Morton makes several 'flavors' of curing salts..we saw several others on line when searching for the basic recipes.

So we started with several large chunks of Missouri Hog Belly, ranging from 2-3 lbs to 12 lbs in size.
We washed and pat-dried the pieces selected for each batch ( we made three seperate batches)
Then with the clean/dry pork belly sitting there,
We mixed a blend of the Morton's Sugar Cure Salt with Brown Sugar...at a ratio (suggested by Mortons) of TWO cups of Salt-cure to ONE cup of Brown Sugar. After mixing that, we did the typical 'rub', like I would for BBQ, on the meat. When that was finished, we stuffed the chunks of meat into zip-loc bags and returned them to the refrigerator for 5 days of "curing".

We turned the meat once a day, and drained off the liquid as ordered by Morton's instructions.
At the end of the five days, I heated up my electric smoker, using hickory and applewood chips for smoke and put the meat in for about 6 hours at 190-195 degrees.
Cooled it down then sliced and packaged Batch One.

Batch ONE was a bit salty for our tastes. it will be fine for cooking in Beans and soups, but eating 'plain' would probably not be part of our choice.

So with Batch TWO we altered the ratio of Salt to Sugar...using ONE cup of the Morton Salt Cure to TWO cups of DARK Brown Sugar.
Same timing in the cure...but we shortened the smoking time to 4 hours The results can be seen in the pile of slabs labeled Batch 2 above.

Today we sliced and packaged the final batch. Using the ONE cup of salt-cure to TWO cups of brown sugar in the cure-rub, Five days in the cure-cooler, and then to add a touch of individuality, on two of these pieces we sprinkled Maple Sugar Crystals on the cured bacon before it went into the smoker. We don't think that did much of anything to the meat in the final evaluation.

What you see here is the final batch, sliced and ready for freezing. Lot of time involved, but in stages and not all that much labor.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (pnwchef)

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:12:14 GMT

Al, looks great.....We will be finishing 2 pigs soon, so they are ready to process when the weather cools down in a month or so. What was the second cure rub Recipe when you dbl the sugar and cut back the salt. could you explain the whole process of what the ingredients were and what you did..................Thanks ..............Bill

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (tiki)

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:13:06 GMT

Mam o man--heat some of that up to go with my sourdough bread,fried green tomatoes,fresh crisp romaine and Hellman's and you just might have a world champion quality BLT!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:20:00 GMT

OK, Here is the last batch of the Missouri Hog Belly to Bacon conversion adventure.
The final product looks and tastes like Bacon...not smoked pork. This is our best yet. we totaled the whole project at between 25 and 30 lbs of sliced Bacon and useable scraps for "Beans N Things" !

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (Twinwillow)

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 19:21:08 GMT

Someones going to bacon heaven!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (ann peeples)

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:15:57 GMT

Fantastic!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:41:42 GMT

UPDATE-
The last batch of Hog Belly is out of the 'cure' and into the Smoker. 4 hours at 190 degrees with maplechips and some hickory mixed in will do the job this time. We totaled about 30 lbs of finished Bacon (before frying), sliced and packaged for the winter use. I'll add a photo to this post when we get the meat out of the smoker this afternoon.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:49:14 GMT

Kevin,
My full-sized "OutHouse Smoke House" is about 80% completed. we had hoped to have it done in time for this project, so as to be able to do all of the Pork Belly at one time...but construction delays have slowed it done a bit.
Here's the foundation and then you can see the size of the project...in its 'being built' location. When done, we will move it onto the foundation, beside the steps to the deck. The firebox will extend down the slope and be connected with stovepipe for about a 6-8 foot distance. It is 4x4x7 foot and will have white-oak barn siding over the plywood when done. (our own wood from a downed oak tree).

Better view of the project. A full report will be posted when we get it "Smoking"

The smoker being used is one of the Masterchef electric boxes...About $199 at Lowes the last time we looked. We use a mix of Jack Daniels charcoal pellets and our own applewood for smoking fuel.
TO ALL- Yeah it looks good and tastes great also. We are going to do the final Batch of 4 chunks of Pork Belly starting their cure tonight, then into the smoker on Saturday.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (Michael Hoffman)

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:12:51 GMT

Boy Al, are you lucky. Bacon prices are heading up and that's no "boloney"
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2012/10/01/bacon-shortage-baloney-but-prices-to-rise.html

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (lleechef)

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:16:11 GMT

Al and Janet,
Absolutely lovely and I'm sure it was delicious!!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (kevincad)

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 10:39:12 GMT

mayor al

OK batch 2 is in the smoker. This one seems to be less salty with a brown-sugar tinge to the brine.
5 hours to go now at 190 degrees.

What kind of smoker is that?

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (FriedClamFanatic)

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 01:00:00 GMT

looks great........hope it tastes so too!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (tiki)

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:45:14 GMT

i am envious! Happy breakfasts and blts!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 15:31:52 GMT

OK, When we took the meat out of the smoker, the top rack...a thinner piece, was done completely. We are snacking on it !!! The others will be treated like partially cooked bacon, to be fried to crisp it up. The balance of sugar and salt is just right in these pieces.
Here is the finished meat as is came out of the smoker...Totals about 11 lbs.

I think this batch will be "Just Right" on a "Three Bears Scale of 1 to 3"

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (tiki)

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 15:02:13 GMT

that looks AWESOME!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (ann peeples)

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 14:37:57 GMT

Mouthwatering!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:06:58 GMT

OK batch 2 is in the smoker. This one seems to be less salty with a brown-sugar tinge to the brine.
5 hours to go now at 190 degrees.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (chewingthefat)

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 13:15:56 GMT

FriedClamFanatic

CTF..when I make my "bacon", using boneless style country rib, i always use a generous amount of garlic in the recipe.....that and redwine vinegar help give it a nice edge and flavor

FCF, sounds delicious!

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (FriedClamFanatic)

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:14:34 GMT

CTF..when I make my "bacon", using boneless style country rib, i always use a generous amount of garlic in the recipe.....that and redwine vinegar help give it a nice edge and flavor

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (mayor al)

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 00:03:33 GMT

Annie
Tom, We decided not to add the garlic but make it brown-sugar/maple 'tint'

Joe, Large Boars can be 'gamey' but the smaller hogs and the sows don't get that 'male' hormone that alters the overall flavor. We have had sausage, loin, ribs, and bacon so far and it is as good or better than 'store-pork'.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (ann peeples)

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:17:18 GMT

Looking forward to some.......

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (chewingthefat)

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:36:33 GMT

Al, I got some garlic bacon from ? on the internet, it was delicious, ever thought of adding some fresh garlic to the cure?
Wish I could remember the company.

Re:Making Bacon-- Hog Hunt produces fine Pork (joerogo)

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:50:21 GMT

Al, how is the rest of the meat? I am told that wild boar/pigs are only good for hams and sausage because the meat is tough.